


Temper

by ami_ven



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Community: mcsheplets, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-17
Updated: 2014-02-17
Packaged: 2018-01-12 19:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1196889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A loud <i>boom</i> shook John awake, and it took him a moment to realize it had been an explosion going off, not too far away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Temper

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "mcsheplets" prompt #169 "revenge"

A loud _boom_ shook John awake, and it took him a moment to realize it had been an explosion going off, not too far away. A second followed almost immediately, this time shaking the whole room so hard that John was knocked out of the narrow cot he’d been lying on. 

He blinked around him. He was in a cell, no different than any he’d seen the inside of in this galaxy— four stone walls, no windows, thick wooden door. John wasn’t quite sure how he’d ended up in this one, but the continued pounding headache felt more like a blow to the head than a Wraith stunner.

_Boom!_

The third explosion sounded closer than the first two, so powerful that the wooden cell door _cracked_ and split down the middle, hanging in pieces from its hinges. John, who had rolled under the bed to avoid the sudden falling bits of ceiling, was half-way to his feet again when a fourth blast went off. He stumbled, and cracked his head against the wall.

Strangely enough, that seemed to help.

John ducked through the broken door, head feeling clearer. They’d been ambushed almost immediately after they’d entered the village. Teyla and Ronon had escaped and hopefully, they’d made it back to the stargate, but he and Rodney—

_Rodney_.

John stopped short in the middle of the corridor, just in time for another explosion to send him tumbling into the wall again. The people on this planet had wanted Rodney to build something for them, a weapon or a bomb, he couldn’t really remember. The last thing he did remember clearly was ordering Rodney not to build it, before something heavy collided with the side of his head and everything had gone dark.

_Boom!_

It felt like the entire planet shook with that explosion, almost knocking John off his feet, but he found himself smiling. Only one person in the whole universe could blow things up like that, which meant that Rodney was still alive. All John had to do was find him.

The corridor ended in another heavy wooden door, cracked down the middle like the one on John’s cell. Beyond it was a rough stone staircase, and as John climbed it, he began to hear the sound of creaking metal and the low roar of a fire. He broke into a run up the stairs, ignoring the ache in his head that was quickly spreading to his whole body.

The staircase ended abruptly in a square hole in the floor above, opening into a wide room full of burning and broken machines. Rodney stood at the center of the chaos, holding his tablet computer in one hand, a weird Ancient-looking device wrapped around his other wrist. He had one black eye, with more cuts and bruises visible down his bare arms and bloody tears in his clothes, but he didn’t seem to notice them. As John watched, Rodney waved his hand, the one with the Ancient device on it, and one corner of the building collapsed in a shower of sparks.

Rodney didn’t even try to move out of the way of the falling debris, the cloud of dust that billowed around him, carrying embers and shards of stone. Something on his tablet beeped, and he turned to enter in more commands. A large chunk of metal broke loose from a ruined machine, clattering to the floor, and Rodney looked up.

And spotted John.

For a moment, everything froze. Rodney didn’t move, blue eyes wide in a dust-coated face, blood dripping to the floor from suddenly-lax fingers.

“John?” he breathed.

They were still ten feet apart, but neither of them moved.

“They told me you were dead,” Rodney said, still sounding breathless. “They told me they’d killed you and I— I guess I lost my temper.”

John huffed out a laugh that was at least half ragged sob. He crossed the space between them to pull Rodney into a fierce hug. The tablet clattered to the floor as Rodney hugged him back, fingers twisting into the fabric of John’s t-shirt.

“Hey,” said John, into Rodney’s shoulder. He squeezed him, hard, then pulled back to rest a gentle hand beside Rodney’s black eye. “You’re hurt.”

“Am I?” Rodney brought up one of his hands to cover John’s, then drew in a sharp breath. “They brought me your jacket, John. It was covered in blood, and I—”

John suddenly did not want to hear how that sentence ended, so he slid his hand behind Rodney’s neck to draw him in for a long, deep kiss. For a moment, Rodney continued talking, then he melted into the kiss, pulling John flush against him.

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” he breathed, when they broke for air. 

“Yeah,” John agreed, and kissed him again.

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> more or less inspired from a quote from _Emperor Mage_ by Tamora Pierce— (Daine: “I thought they’d killed you. I lost my temper” Numair: “Magelet, that is the greatest understatement I’ve ever heard in my life.”)


End file.
